The gun is called The Liberator, an homage to guns that were air-dropped into France to help it fight Nazi invasion. Defense Distributed sees its guns as a way for people to defend themselves.

Greenberg reports that the Liberator is built inside an $8,000 3D printer. The printer melts polymer to make fifteen of the sixteen pieces that make the gun. The sixteenth is a nail that is used as a firing pin.

Defense Distributed is working on plans to make the gun printable on cheaper 3D printers.

For now, it can only handle a .380 handgun round, says Greenberg. A higher power, 5.7×28 rifle cartridge, was in the gun but it shattered the plastic.

Here's video evidence of the gun being fired. The first is just a test shot, the second is the promotional video from Defense Distributed.